Elmo is a American institution so how it’s possible that creepy bums in Times Square can use his iconic likeness to lure unsuspecting tourists to take photos for money? It is quite astounding. Especially when Times Square Elmo has a criminal rap sheet that includes assault on children, racial slurs and drug dealing, just to name a few. Here are some of Bad Elmo’s finest moments in Times Square.

The shape of a baseball bat hasn’t changes since it’s introduction to the game 150 years ago, why is that? The glove has been transformed time and time again, tailoring sizes and webbing to position players, making it an optimal size to catch a fly ball or field a ground ball for a quick release. So why has the baseball bat not been looked at for improvements? Well it has now. Bruce Leinert a former New York Woodworker had an idea to change the game over 20 years ago, after an idea stemming from a Ted Williams quote opened his eyes to change the game of baseball forever. In Williams’ 1971 book The Science of Hitting, Ted Williams said that a hitter’s wrists, at the point of contact, should be “square and unbroken … just as when you hit a tree with an ax.” Right then and there Leinert built himself the first bat with an axe handle in two hours. Now twenty-four years later, he a signed a 20-year licensing deal with Baden Sports, a family-owned sporting goods company based in Washington. We had a chance to try out the Axe Bat Avenge and were incredibly impressed with it’s more »

in a mere 16-second turnaround on Oct. 22, 1994, Kenny Wheaton and the Oregon Ducks created pandemonium in the aisles of Autzen Stadium, When Wheaton took a 97-yard interception return against the University of Washington to the house and sealed a 31-20 win and propelled the 1994 Ducks toward their first conference crown in 37 years. In honor of the 20th anniversary of “The Pick,” Nike and the Oregon Ducks have partnered to re-create a modernized version of the iconic 1994 uniform design that the team wore during that glorious moment – a proper tribute to a turning point in the Ducks football history. This modern version of the classic 1994 Ducks uniform features the original number and name font from that year, as well as a modernized bold, iconic stripe to tie in the Classic Green jersey and University Gold pant and helmet. The “UO” logo is featured on the pant, and Duck logo highlights the sleeves. Following this iconic turning point, Oregon went on to play in 17 bowl games over the next 19 years and have the best winning percentage in the Pac-12 (.731), claim shares of five conference championships and finish two years ranked second in more »

Fall is here and with a new season comes a great time to start trying some new beers—especially because you’ll be stocking up for the winter sooner than you think. But nowadays, when you walk into your local beermonger you are surrounded by thousands of microbrews with punny names that don’t help you figure out the flavor in the slightest. Fear not! For GQ has enlisted the help of 10 different beer experts to guide you through the best craft beers in 10 different categories. Now go and sample a few (or 50).

Virgin America has just come up with the greatest way to advertise their low-fare, but high-quality coast-to-coast flights—with a 6-hour video simulating your flight on one of the other airlines. This Bunuel-tinged epic features long shots of the back of the seat in front of you, annoying neighbors, and pushy flight attendants. It’s frightening how real it is. There are even a few dream sequences to give the film an avant-garde touch. Seriously, if this isn’t deserving of a Criterion Collection release, I don’t know what is. How many years do you give it before it’s playing on loop at the Museum of Modern Art?

Two students from Germany booked an impromptu trip to the United States and over the course of 20 days they covered 4,920 miles exploring the Western half of the United States. Along the way they saw endless beauty, ate a few In-N-Out burgers and snapped dozens of incredible photos of their journey.

Australian wine producer Penfolds has released just 12 bottles of their Block 42 Limited Edition Cabernet Sauvignon Ampoule. And just three bottles of the $168,000 wine have made their way to America. Where can you buy this most rare of wines? At the Sam’s Club in Freehold, New Jersey, of course! The Ampoule in the wine’s name refers to the sealed glass capsule that contains the wine, seen above. That’s right, that fancy, ultra-modern looking packaging is available in the same place where you can buy mayonnaise by the gallon. And for purchasing the ampoule at the member’s-only warehouse store, you can save $10,000! The Block 42 Limited Edition Cabernet Sauvignon Ampoule costs just $158,000 at Sam’s Club—that’s over 24,000 gallons of mayonnaise! And even if you get to Freehold and decide not to buy the wine, you can always head over to the Freehold Raceway and blow $150,000 there instead.

California has experienced one of the worst droughts in recent history, with that comes wildfires. Gregg Boydston, a member of the ‘Hotshots’, a team of elite wild-land firefighters has been sharing his experiences of terrifying wildfires. Boyston is also an amateur photographer says, “Originally, I was taking photos to keep my friends and family up to date on what I was doing and what my summer was really consisting of. Then I started posting the photos to my Instagram, where people were really responding to them. Then I started posting them…to show people what the wildland-side of firefighting was like,” Boydston told CityLab. Check out Boydston’s Instagram here.

In American, we men like our cars big and powerful. That’s why we always giggle a bit when one of our buds buys himself a Volkswagen Beetle. C’mon, the damn car came with a flower vase! But in the hands of a mechanical engineer like Ron Patrick of California, the Beetle can become the most badass car on the road. Patrick has spent about $200,000 fitting a 1500hp jet engine to the back of his VW Beetle. Why did he choose the iconic bug? “Because it looks cool with the jet and it shows it off well.” Well there’s no arguing with that. Patrick has no idea how fast the car will go, since the speedometer only goes to 140 mph. Best of all, and much to the chagrin of California’s finest, the Beetle is totally street legal! And Patrick’s next project? Strapping two jets to his wife’s Honda Metropolitan Scooter. Yup. For more info and photos, check out Ron Patrick Stuff.

Director Marc Donahue of PermaGrin Films recently toted his 20-GoPro array and Red Epic camera to San Diego United Training Center to capture the True Movement crew. The breakdancers, gymnasts, and parkour athletes are captured with amazing bullet time effects afforded by the 20-camera setup. For more info on the shoot, including some great behind the scenes photos featuring the massive camera array, check out the “making of” article at PetaPixel. So…does anyone have 19 GoPros and a Red Epic camera I can borrow?

Last week, President Obama designated southern California’s San Gabriel Mountains a National Monument. About 350,000 acres of the mountain range’s 655,000 acres received the designation and federal protection that comes along with it. For many residents of Los Angeles, the mountains provide the only open space escape available. In fact, more than 15 million people live within 90 minutes of the mountain range. Also, 30% of Los Angeles’ drinking water comes form the mountains—a very important reason to make sure that water supply is kept clean. Along with the designation comes more than a million dollars to go towards upgrading and maintaining trails and picnic areas. With more than 3 million visitors annually, the San Gabriel Mountains will need all the preservation aid they can get. These high quality photos come from the US Department of Agriculture. For more great photos, check out the USDA on Flickr.

Making healthy decisions may seem to be at odds with drinking, but just because you’re getting boofy blitzed, you don’t need to pack on the pounds in the process. If you want to have some fun without transforming your six pack into a pony keg, check out this handy breakdown of the calories in liquor, beer, cider, and wine. So put away that Chocolate Choo-choo and opt for some shots of Jose Cuervo instead. When you’re nursing your killer hangover tomorrow, you can at least take solace in your fine looking bod.

Jameis Winston has been feeling a ton of heat lately. (Probably) rightfully so. But what ever the case football fans with marginal photoshop skillz have taken to Twitter, using the hash tag #BlameJameis, to make Jameis the scapegoat for everything they are upset about. We decided to get in on the action.

Artist Scott Erickson has combined the art of the indigenous peoples of America’s Pacific Northwest with iconic vehicles and characters from the Star Wars film for his new series, Alliance is Rebellion. His website states that the work “presents a graphic alternative history that unifies under-popularized historical indigenous myths with an over-popularized fictional space epic.” We just think they would make sweet tattoos. For more info on the series and to order prints, check out Alliance is Rebellion.

How long has it been since you’ve been to an arcade? With the awesome gaming we can experience in our living rooms via Playstation 4, Xbox One, and even our laptops, there’s just not much reason to leave the house for video games. But Bandai Namco is betting that they can get you to shell out quarters again. And by the looks of this machine, you’ll need lots and lots of quarters. Star Wars Battle Pod features an immersive, 180-degree domed screen with a vibrating seat and controls. Fans produce air blasts to mimic acceleration and 5.1 sound guarantees you’ll feel all the action. The game features five different scenarios, allowing you to pilot a variety of vehicles in the Star Wars universe, including speeder bikes and X-Wings. The developers researched what Americans like in an arcade game, and one big factor is actually limited playing time. Apparently we like to reserve our hours of gaming for our living rooms, but when we’re at an arcade, three minutes is the sweet spot. This limited timeframe also means that players won’t have time for any sort of training. Bandai Namco are hoping the controls are intuitive enough that anyone can jump more »

In this incredible video, base jumper John Van Horne arrives with a splash at a pool party by diving off the 1,099 feet famous Tower in Kuala Lumpur. One base jumper could teach us all a thing or two about arriving at a party in style. John Van Horne and his two friends, ‏‎Matt Frohlich‎‏ and ‏‎Andy Lewis‎‏, decided they had to make an impressive entrance everyone would remember by jumping off the observation platform of the Tower in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. In the amazing video taken by a a GoPro camera, the viewer sees the jaw-dropping height – about 1,099 feet – Mr Lewis jumps from and he seamlessly glides in the air to great cheers from the crowd. His arrival makes a splash literally and metaphorically and he is soon joined by another daredevil arriving in the pool in the same heartstopping way. Source: DailyMail

Five students from Hétic school in France have built an intricate website dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the Marvel Universe. Ultimate75th.com is a website dedicated to archiving every comic and character in the marvel collection from 1939-2014. The fully interactive site contains history, artwork, comic covers and a full archive of 2,556 characters from over nearly 500 series. The students framed out the site in just four days, it was developed using Marvel’s own API and the coding skills of it’s creators. Check out the site here.

James Franco always seems to be involved in some sort of weird, pseudo-performance art project that has us scratching our heads for a few minutes before completely forgetting about it. But now, someone else is using his likeness for some sort of artsy purposes we don’t quite understand. Mel Elliott, who has previously created coloring books using photos of actors like Benedict Cumberbatch and Ryan Gosling, has now turned her eye to Franco’s Instagram account. Using social media photos of the actor in character, in drag and in bed, Elliott has put together another fun coloring book, with 36 pages of Franco. You can pre-order “Colour Me Good James Franco” right now at Amazon for $11 and you have plenty of time to stock up on crayons (Crayola, not that Rose Art junk) before the coloring book ships October 23.

Slate’s Ben Blatt put together a fascinating visual of the shifting center of pro athlete production. With the information he could gather, Blatt collected birth records for 23,000 football players, 3,200 basketball players, and 1,000 hockey players and mapped out a reletive difference in player geography throughout sports. For example we can see the dramatic migration south west for baseball while hockey players are scattered across Michigan, Wisconsin and Upstate New York. Blatt uses the same algorithm used to track the country’s shifting population center over time, which shows the balance of pro athletes in this country (Hockey excluded) heavily shifting south since the 1950s.

Each year, the United Kingdom’s Society of Biology presents two awards to their photographer of the year. One winner, an amateur photographer over the age of 18, will be awarded £1000, while the other winner, an amateur photographer 18 and under, will win £500. The theme of this year’s competition was Home, Habitat, and Shelter. The winner will be announced at Society of Biology Awards Ceremony in London today. Who do you think should win?

YouTube user MartiansBrain was surprised when he found out that his 12-year-old niece and all her friends were listening to Nicki Minaj’s “Anaconda.” He didn’t believe that the song, about a woman who sleeps with a drug dealer because she likes the things he buys her, was appropriate for children his niece’s age. In order to present the lyrics in an easier to understand manner, he created this spoken word video, set to the soothing music of Erik Satie’s “Gymnopédie No.1.” No matter where you stand on the issue, this is a pretty entertaining and effective video. I think it’s the first time I actually paid attention to the lyrics of this song…

Photographer Julian Tryba created this mesmerizing time-lapse that combines layers of photos creating days length. Titled ‘Boston Layer-Lapse’, it shows the sun rising and setting over Boston in different locations. The video comprises a staggering 150,000 photographs which took 100 hours to shoot and 350 hours to edit. Julian took time out of her busy schedule as a engineer at GE Aviation to create this after being inspired by a similar series featuring GIFs of cityscapes by artist Fong Qi Wei. But the most interesting part of the video is how Tryba incorporates shadows on skyscrapers to merge with the beat of the song being used.

Hey, we’re all sick of pumpkin spice everything invading our lives. BUT we gotta say, deep frying anything is usually a good idea, so if we’re going to indulge in anything pumpkin spice flavored this fall, it might as well be a disgustingly divine fried treat. Food blog Oh, Bite It, which has fried tequila and beer in the past, has now tackled that ubiquitous fall flavor with pumpkin in the name but no sign of the squash in the taste. And as much as as we’d like to hate on it, these look pretty damn delicious. It’s basically just taking cubes of angel food cake, soaking them in pumpkin spice latte, and then frying them in canola oil. Oh, and some whipped cream on the side for dipping, of course. If these pictures get your mouth watering, head on over to Oh, Bite It for the full recipe.

Artist Ralph Steadman, best known for his longtime collaboration with Hunter S Thompson and illustrating the the packaging for Flying Dog Brewery, has now created covers for a new Blu-ray collection of “Breaking Bad.” Each season has its own case with a different character drawn in Steadman’s signature style. Walter, Jesse, Saul, Gus, Mike, and Hank are each featured. The set should be available February 2015. And for more info on Ralph Steadman, check out his website.

On Monday, the United States will celebrate Columbus Day, meaning that almost all of us will work but some places will be closed just to screw with us. We all learned how Columbus found the New World and how he was so brilliant for knowing the world was round and we are all wrong. Luckily, The Oatmeal sets us straight with this infographic and even suggests a different person to celebrate on the second Monday in October. For extra fun, send this to your Grandpa to share at the next Knights of Columbus spaghetti dinner.

Remember those memorable school lunches you spent winning your peers lunch money folding a piece of looseleaf into a triangle? Well now you can take them to school all over again with this Bud Light UpRights for Whatever – a table game that challenges you to kick as many field goals with your fingers as you can in 45 seconds using a mini-football. Just sign up, win, have Bud Light send you one of these flick football games and take your friends to the cleaners every Sunday. We have a March Madness mini hoops table at out office and it has been put to great use over the last few months. See more Ashley Michaelsen photos.

This past Friday, construction at New York City’s 432 Park was completed. It’s height is trumped by none other in NYC, including One World Trade Center, not including the added spire. The building is a luxury condominium that tops out at 1,396 feet, towering above a skyline of already tall buildings on Manhattan’s Central Park South area nicknamed “Billionaires’ Belt”. The building, which cost $1.3 billion to construct, has two penthouses, one on the 96th floor that sold for $95 million and another on the 95th, currently priced at $85 million. From the inside, the building is a work of art, but from the outside, is an absolute insult to the tradition in architectural prowess that has encompassed the New York City skyline for the last century. For a building that’s going to be the face of Manhattan’s midtown section skyline it’s incredibly boring, unlike the Empire State Building, Chrysler Building and even Bank of America Tower. 432 Park is undoubtedly a architectual feat, but there is absolutely no character unlike its predecessor for tallest residential building in manhattan and the western hemisphere, the lower east side’s 8 Spruce Street, Also known as Beekman Tower and New York by Gehry. more »

We’ve been hearing a lot about Ebola and now that the virus has made its way to the US, we are trying to learn as much as we can. That’s why we’re glad Swedish doctor and popular public speaker Hans Rosling has released his latest “Factopod” detailing just how quickly the virus can spread. The rate at which an infection spreads is known as its r-0. Ebola’s r-0 is between 1.7 and 2.0, meaning each person who has it will spread it to two more people on average. And this video presents this scary exponential growth in a way that even the dimmest bulb can understand.

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of our generation’s favorite movie, Ghostbusters, Legacy Recordings announced a deluxe vinyl reissue of the classic theme song at New York City’s Comic Con last weekend. The Stay Puft Super Deluxe Edition features Ray Parker Jr.’s hit song along with Run DMC’s rap from the sequel. Both songs are on Side A of the 12″ white vinyl with Side B smooth. Also included are two 12×12 3D Stay Puft lenticulars, a puffy jacket that feels and even smells like marshmallow, a certificate of authenticity, and a 6″ Stay Puft figurine. Unfortunately, only 3000 copies are available and the nerds are sure to snatch ‘em up quickly. We’ll have to keep our eyes on eBay after they begin shipping October 21. Pre-order yours at the Ghostbusters Store.

John Oliver took the week off of Last Week Tonight, but still gave us a weekly rant online in a web exclusive video cracking down on the pumpkin spice craze now ubiquitous with fall. Oliver digs right into the subject by denouncing the flavor of the faux pumpkin by saying “the coffee that tastes like a candle — and I don’t mean it tastes like a candle smells, pumpkin spice lattes taste like a candle tastes.” He then proceeds to compare autumn’s foliage to one’s own mortality then adds a fatality to all PSL enthusiasts by noting there’s actually no pumpkin in your latte at all and that you can add the flavored syrup to your latte all year around.

Americans have a long history of someone making a few bucks in some remote location and everyone else following soon after, wringing every last resource from the land while building a town in the process. Once there are no more fortunes to be made, everyone packs up and moves on. Various mineral and natural resource booms over the last two centuries have left our great nation’s landscape dotted with some really fun and freaky ghost towns. Take a look at this list from The Smithsonian and find the best towns where you don’t have to worry about HOA regulations and loud neighbors. Well, not living ones anyway.

After losing a doubleheader to the Brooklyn Dodgers on July 4, 1914, the Boston Braves record stood at 26-40. They were in last place, the worst in the league. The team took a day off and on July 6, they started off on a streak that lasted for two months. In the period between July 6 and September 6, the Braves went 43-13, propelling themselves from last all the way to first place. They were the first team to go from worst to first, earning the moniker “Miracle Braves.” Despite their incredible turnaround, the Braves were still considered the underdog going into the world series against the Philadelphia Athletics. In addition to stats that couldn’t compare to the Athletics, the Braves didn’t even have a home field to garner any home field advantage. Just two months earlier they moved out of their home for the previous 43 years, South End Grounds, and were renting Fenway Park from the Red Sox while awaiting construction of Braves Field. But none of this mattered when it came to actually playing the game. The Braves won the first game 7-1 and didn’t let up for the rest of the series. Three games later, on more »